Let us be your source on solar

In the last few months, we have received many ques­tions about solar pow­er, such as:

• Will it reduce my pow­er bill?
• Is solar a less-expen­sive alter­na­tive?
• What ques­tions should I ask solar sales­peo­ple?

YEC began research­ing renew­able-ener­gy alter­na­tives about 15 years ago, and we’ve been offer­ing Green Pow­er to our mem­bers since 2004. Since then, solar ener­gy alter­na­tives have become avail­able and have gen­er­at­ed a lot of con­sumer inter­est. And, issues sur­round­ing solar ener­gy alter­na­tives have been addressed by the S.C. Gen­er­al Assem­bly. There are now two pub­li­ca­tions with which any­one con­sid­er­ing solar should become famil­iar. The first is SC Act 236, the law gov­ern­ing renew­able ener­gy in S.C. The sec­ond is the Office of Reg­u­la­to­ry Staff’s Cost Shift­ing Analy­sis on what renew­able ener­gy will cost S.C. cit­i­zens by 2021.

Infor­ma­tion is key to any large invest­ment. I would encour­age all of our mem­bers inter­est­ed in renew­able ener­gy to research the pros and cons and do what best fits each indi­vid­ual.

In this col­umn, I am going to answer some of the most fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions I’ve heard. If I don’t cov­er it here, don’t hes­i­tate to call. We will do our best to get you straight answers.

Solar FAQs answered

Before even con­sid­er­ing invest­ing in solar pho­to­volta­ic (PV) sys­tems, improve your home­’s ener­gy effi­cien­cy. This will reduce the size of any sys­tem you might install and improve your invest­ment. Oth­er­wise, the cost ben­e­fits may be dis­ap­point­ing.

Small­er solar PV sys­tems range in size from about 2,000 watts—or 2 kilo­watts (kW)—up to around 13kW. They cost $4,250 to $5,000 per kW. A 2kW sys­tem might save a con­sumer $31 a month. This is a lot of mon­ey for a small reduc­tion in your month­ly pow­er bill.

If you aren’t sure it’s worth it, vis­it MySCSolar.com, a web­site devel­oped by YEC and oth­er S.C. co-ops to help our mem­bers. You can plug in your numbers—the gen­er­at­ing capac­i­ty of a solar PV sys­tem, its up-front costs, etc.—to cal­cu­late your return on invest­ment. Of course, please con­tact us any­time if you need assis­tance.

Questions to ask about solar

We rec­om­mend YEC mem­bers ask the fol­low­ing ques­tions relat­ed to rooftop solar PV sys­tems:

• How long does the war­ran­ty last? When will you have to assume repair or replace­ment costs?
• How old is my roof? You need a good roof on which to install a solar PV sys­tem. If you have to replace your roof, what will that cost? And, if there’s a storm, will you have to replace the roof and the solar pan­els?
• Will solar pan­els increase my insur­ance costs? Some­times, fea­tures you might think add value—say, an in-ground pool—can be lia­bil­i­ties. Check with your insur­ance com­pa­ny.
• Will renew­able-ener­gy tax cred­its ben­e­fit me? Check with your accoun­tant. But one thing’s cer­tain: You will not get a check from the gov­ern­ment for installing solar. Tax cred­its don’t work that way.

We are here to serve you! Allow us to be your trust­ed resource on solar.